The New Civil Rights Movement against the New Jim Crow

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Criminal Justice

In 1931, Harold Anslinger was made chief of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics
and Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD). He held the position until 1963. Anslinger
was an avowed racist who used the economic crisis to tie cannabis to
minority populations. Some of his remarks include (with apologies in
advance):

"The primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races."

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers."

"Reefer makes darkies think they¹re as good as white men."

"Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."

(Guither, 2012)

By the way, the first Drug War “Scientist” was Dr. William C. Munch, a veterinarian who once claimed to have smoked weed and “it turned me into a bat… and I flew about the room”.

Anslinger stated that Negroes on cocaine were impervious to 32 caliber bullets, hence the police upgraded their weaponry to 38 and later when PCP was raging and LSD was scaring the stuff out of the powers that be Dirty Harry’s 44 Magnum was deemed sufficient but now we have swat raids with flash bang grenades, extensive firepower, vests, helmets… it is a war. My kids have made it through pretty good so far, I think education is the best solution. But now my grandkids are starting to get to that age, where they could ride in a car with somebody who has enough weed or pills to destroy many of their prospects for a good life, by being in a car for ten minutes. Horrible prospects indeed for those convicted of a drug crime.

These days, your history of drug use is public, available and permanent.

No government loan for an education, no food stamps, no housing assistance, no professional license, no right to vote and no hope for a job. But there is always one employer, arms open wide, inviting you to make that 25% mark up on their black market products.

Many addicts and abusers have suffered in life, mostly from abuse as a child, feelings of abandonment, disruption and of being overwhelmed. Rather than educate and work to steer them from tragedy towards potential, we simply torture them further.

The drug war is not working, I say legalize it all. Insist on scientific analysis, accurate and complete labeling of ingredients and let the buyer beware. If anyone dares sell drugs to our children I say lock them up like we do those who sell the deadly drugs alcohol and tobacco to our children.